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Exporting numbers to a file like printf

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg41066] Exporting numbers to a file like printf
  • From: "Lawrence A. Walker Jr." <lwalker701 at earthlink.net>
  • Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 04:25:58 -0400 (EDT)
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Is it me or is exporting numbers to a file using Mathematica really tough?

Most of the time I need fine control over how Mathematica output data to 
a text file -- sort of like the printf in C.

If I am not careful Mathematica will print out numbers in 2D scientific 
notations.  This messes everything up because the data takes up two lines!

After much experimentation I came across two constructs:

(1) ToString[PaddedForm[FortranForm[SetPrecision[num,15]],{6,5},
     NumberSigns->{"",""}]]

(2) ToString[PaddedForm[num, {17, 10}, ExponentFunction -> (Null &)]]

In the (1) I used SetPrecision[ ,15] because without it Mathematica kept 
formatting certain numbers to machine precision instead of the precision 
I specified.

In (2), the ExponentFunction option was necessary to suppress the 2D 
scientific notation formatting.

Does anyone know a better way for mimicking the printf function?

And of course, the WriteString function can be used to export the 
'numbers' to a file.

Thanks,
Lawrence
-- 
Lawrence A. Walker Jr.
http://www.kingshonor.com


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